


City Girl 04: Mission Statement

by NervousOtaku



Series: Earth Pi Chronicles [4]
Category: Marvel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 03:04:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19076188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NervousOtaku/pseuds/NervousOtaku
Summary: It'd be fun, Johnny thought. He hadn't seen Felicity since he stopped babysitting her.





	1. Chapter 1

“Hey, Johnny.”

He looked up from his cereal with wide eyes, trying to think of anything he might've done to piss Sue off.

But she didn't look mad, looking at something on her phone— nope, Rich's phone— as she leaned against the kitchen doorframe. “Stark just texted saying his daughter's in town. Apparently she's in her own apartment for the first time, and he'd like someone to check on her.”

After a moment, Johnny grinned. “No problem! No plans today anyway, haven't seen the squirt in ages!”

Which was true, he hadn't seen Felicity since she was eleven. Saw her picture in the paper now and then, caught a couple interviews on TV, a few articles online... Five years now. Dang, time flew fast!

And she'd just finished another bot, too, one designed for what equated to cuddle therapy. That made three, didn't it? The doctor, the cop, and now the cuddler? He wondered if she had this new one here with her. Doing a tour, perhaps, the same way she had with the first one?

Johnny polished off his breakfast, got dressed, and got the address from Sue. He decided to grab his wallet along with his keys, figuring he'd stop by a bakery and grab something for Felicity. A congrats on the bot and on having her own place. Personally, he would've crashed with his rich parents, but maybe she found living with her pops too stifling? They were both geniuses, he imagined they clashed every now and then over creative things.

Before long, he was moving through the hallway of an apartment building. Industrial-style loft apartments, apparently. Why the kid didn't just get herself a converted warehouse was beyond him, but hey, her choice. Moving the box of assorted goodies so he could knock better, Johnny rapped his knuckles against the door and stepped back.

After a moment, the door opened, but it wasn't Felicity.

“Can I help you?” the seemingly half-awake guy yawned, running a hand through his hair. What was left of it, anyway. Dang, he was no Captain America, but he was certainly fit.

“I'm looking for Felicity?” Johnny put forth warily. How old was this guy? Felicity wasn't... dating him, was she? Logically, he knew he wasn't really one to talk, he'd made some... questionable choices in his love-life, but there was something about this man that put him off.

Turning to look over his shoulder, the guy yelled, “Hey, brat! There's some guy here!”

There was a muffled yell back that Johnny couldn't quite make out, but the guy apparently could. “Name?” the stranger drawled.

“Johnny Storm.” he replied.

“... That Human Torch guy?”

He couldn't help but give his signature cocky grin and a small but flamboyant bow.

“Johnny Storm, apparently!” the guy called back into the apartment.

After a moment, there was the rhythmic thumping of feet approaching. There was a short pause, and then Felicity skidded into existence next to the stranger. For a moment, all she did was stare at him, blue eyes wide.

Smiling, Johnny greeted, “Hey squirt, remember me?”

That was all it took for her to start smiling back, reaching out to pull him into the apartment. “Johnny! It's been so long! Five whole years!”

“Sorry I never texted or anything, but your dad threatened all kinds of things.” he replied. “And I hope you haven't had breakfast yet, cuz I brought baked goods!”

“Oh, you're just barely too late... I just finished eating not that long ago...” Felicity pouted.

“I didn't.” the stranger declared, yoinking the box away.

“Oh yeah, gonna introduce me to your friend here?” Johnny asked, turning to examine the guy currently poking through the goodies at the kitchenette.

“His name is Daken. Daken, this is Johnny. I know I probably don't need to introduce him that much, but back when I was little he would stop by to play with me from time to time.” Felicity answered.

Daken... that name sounded familiar for some reason? But he couldn't place it?

“Nice to meetcha.” he greeted with a smile all the same.

Daken turned his head, a donut in hand, and looked at him. Johnny got the feeling he was being examined. After a moment, he was flashed a toothy grin that made him think of feral animals.

“So what brings you by, Johnny?” Felicity asked, leading him over to the couches. Nice couches, too. Not the super expensive leather kind, but cushy and good for chilling on.

“Well, my sister mentioned that a certain genius's daughter had gotten herself an apartment, and I saw a news article about an emotional support android... so I figured housewarming and congratulations are both in order!” he answered easily. “Nice place, by the way! Was expecting you to stay with your pops or get a straight-up warehouse, but this is pretty sweet.”

“Well, I'm trying to get some life skills you just can't while living with parents.”

Johnny thought he heard Daken snort at that, but decided to ignore it.

“And I'm also trying to get myself set up. I don't want to rely on Mom and Dad forever, even if they'd happily let me.” Felicity continued.

“Squirt,” Johnny informed the girl with a deathly serious face, “I regret to inform you that you're far too mature for your age.”

She rolled her eyes with a grin, smacking her hand against his arm.

“So am I missing something or should I keep packing? Since you're distracted with your boyfriend?” Daken drawled, sauntering over to the couches with a few turnovers in hand.

Felicity sighed, looking up at the man. “Johnny's not my boyfriend, Daken. He used to babysit me back when no one trusted I wouldn't accidentally turn microwaves into nukes. And ANX said he'd take care of packing when you got the door.”

Packing? Why were they packing?

She seemed to notice his confusion as Daken sat down on the other couch, sprawling like he owned the place. “Oh, right. Daken has some... family issues. He's old enough that the system won't take him, and he's got his feet pretty firmly on the ground, but I'm helping him hunt down his relatives.” she explained.

“Issues?” Johnny asked with a frown.

Before Felicity could explain, the guy in question said, “I'm a mutant,” as he bit rather savagely into one of the pastries he held.

“Oh. Shit, man, I'm sorry. That sucks.” Johnny apologized. Well, now he felt like a jerk. If he was Daken, he might act like a bit of a punk too. More often than not, people were outright jerks to mutants, and sometimes the only way to get away from that was to be a jerk yourself. And here Felicity was, living up to her reputation of a perfect angel, while he and probably everyone else just looked at Daken and wondered if the guy was after her money or something else.

There was, of course, nothing to say the guy wasn't after Felicity's money or talents. But having that kind of back story certainly complicated things a bit.

However, in response to his apology, Daken just shrugged. “My dad's a shitstain, my mom's dead, foster families are all fucks. Brat just claims to have tracked down my coincidentally also a mutant paternal uncle.” the guy said, licking his fingers clean.

“Yes, Victor. He does have something of a criminal record, but he's calmed down a great deal since getting married to his current spouse, Raven. The two of them live up in Maine, actually. About a day's drive.” Felicity nodded, standing up.

“Oh, nice. Heading out today, then?” Johnny smiled.

“Hey,” Daken said suddenly, switching couches so he was sitting next to Johnny, “Why don't you invite your boyfriend with us? We'll never know if my old man's brother is gonna turn out to be just as much of a shitstain, after all.”

He blinked in surprise. He wouldn't have thought this rather cold-seeming guy would be so keen on having company.

Daken draped a casual arm over his shoulders, grinning again. Up close, Johnny could see just how sharp the guy's teeth were. Was that part of his mutation or something he did to match the mohawk and tattoo?

“Hmm,” Felicity said, and he could hear the frown in her voice, “I don't know, it's last-minute and awfully rude...”

Swallowing a bit, Johnny piped up, “Well, if there's a chance you guys could get in trouble, having me in your corner might be good...?”

He couldn't look away from Daken. He was sure that if he really put his mind to it, he could, but part of him really didn't want to. Well, two parts. One that was noting how intense Daken's eyes were, and one that was warning him that looking away would spell death.

“Daken, can I speak with you? In the loft, please?” Felicity said, and wow, her voice was cold...

After a moment, the mutant groaned, rolling his eyes and standing up. Johnny couldn't help but gasp a little, as if a great weight had just been lifted from his chest. Daken flashed him another feral grin, and he felt his fists clench. Felicity was already halfway up the stairs to the loft, throwing impatient looks over her shoulder.

As the two vanished into the loft, Johnny let out a breath he wasn't aware he'd been holding and ran a hand over his face.

That was intense. Really really intense. That Daken guy was... something else. And Felicity was friends with him? How was she not constantly overwhelmed? Was it that cockiness her dad had?

After a moment, he got up from the couch and began moving around the apartment, trying to calm down.

The place didn't look anything like he would expect a sixteen-year-old girl's place to look. Felicity Stark was admittedly far from the standard teenage girl, but still. He would've expected at least one stack of girly magazines or something. Not a... conspiracy board?

Frowning a little, Johnny moved under the loft to examine the large corkboard.

... Hey, Daken's picture was on the board. Pinned up with a... a SHIELD file? Wait?

Confused, he moved closer, reaching out to run his fingers over the paper.

The file was a SHIELD thing, it looked like. He knew Tony had hacked into their systems on multiple occasions to get information no one was giving him, so it was no surprise that Felicity already could. But what was it?

It was a threat-assessment on Daken Akihiro.

Johnny felt his eyes widen, sucking in a breath.

That guy currently upstairs with Felicity was more than a punk from a bad home. And she clearly knew that.

The upstairs door opened, the girl's voice spilling out, “Johnny is family, and family is off the table!”

“What if he comes onto me?” Daken's voice shot slyly back.

“That's different and you talk to me first anyway— Oh, Johnny...”

He turned around, eyes wide. “Felicity, what is this?”

She stepped off the stairs, holding her hands out as if to calm a spooked animal. “I can explain, Johnny, just don't freak out.”

“Freak out? Squirt, far be it from me to lecture on bad decisions, but this is insane! And he's just one paper on your board?! Felicity, just what are you doing?!” Johnny demanded, feeling his palms start to sizzle.

“Still say seducing your family isn't an option?” Daken asked from the stairs.

“Keep it in your pants,” Felicity said sharply before turning back to Johnny, “Listen, okay, just give me five minutes. We can all sit down and talk this out. I can explain what's going on.”

Johnny swallowed, eyes darting to the shape on the stairs. Daken had sat down, it looked like.

“... Five minutes.” he said at length, crossing his arms over his chest. “If you can't make a solid argument for whatever it is you're doing, I'm ratting you out to your dad.”

Felicity nodded in a conceding manner. “Okay. That's fair.”

“So you really better talk.” he threatened.

Smiling a bit, she nodded again. “Well, long story short, I'm trying to take control of the crime world.”

Daken burst out laughing.

“... Back up and give me the unabridged version, Fel,” Johnny said, shaking his head, “I'm not Rich or your dad, but I'm not stupid.”

She smiled again. It didn't look like the sweet smiles she usually gave. This one was cold. Self-deprecating. “It's a bit of a long story... why don't we get the stuff you brought and sit at the couches...”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ANX is pronounced Antoine.

“So,” Daken yawned, watching from the window as the Torch left, “How much of that sob-story was true?”

“You mean the being held hostage and my finding out that the man was a criminal by necessity? His family getting nothing after he was killed, his wife getting murdered, youngest dying of sickness, and oldest two still being in jail?” Felicity asked as ANX put away the rest of the baked goods. “Oh, all of it.”

He scoffed. “So your feeling guilty set you on the path to becoming the lady kingpin of the world. Riiiiight.”

“More of my realizing how many ways that could have been prevented all together. Everything I told Johnny was true.” the girl hummed, taking the corkboard apart.

“... You planned for him to come here.” Daken said, standing up.

“Mm-hmm. I didn't, however,” she replied, turning to glare daggers at him, “Plan for you to try your tricks on him.”

He couldn't help but grin, rolling his eyes as he sauntered over to the kitchenette. “Everything packed, Ken-doll?”

“Everything the two of you could foreseeably require has been added to the bags, yes. I will bring them downstairs shortly.” ANX nodded politely, not batting an eye as Daken caged the android in against the fridge.

“Please refrain from fucking my robot.” Felicity said flatly.

Groaning exaggeratedly, he dropped an arm to let the fake human pass. ANX bobbed it's head and moved to the stairs.

“Everything I told Johnny was true,” Felicity repeated, “Because I know he can keep a secret. No one thinks he can, put when push comes to shove, Johnny Storm makes a very good secret-keeper.”

He didn't answer, leaning against the fridge to watch as she plugged in the paper-shredder and started dropping things in it. After a while, he said, “... Evil will fester like an infected wound, huh?”

“Yes. We're always told that good triumphs and evil fails, but that is because the winners write history, and the winners will always paint themselves as the heroes. Good may always rise up against evil, but the inverse is also true. So for good to truly win, it must have some capacity for wickedness.” she answered as ANX came down from the loft with a duffle bag in each hand.

“So you'll be that little black sheep of the heroic world.” Daken drawled, sauntering over to her.

“If not me, then who?”

He didn't answer her question, instead firing back with, “And you think that guy can keep a secret?”

She paused, looking up at him. To his surprise, she asked, “Can you tell that half my face was almost burnt off?”

Blinking, Daken leaned down so they were eye-level and replied, “Are you saying the Human Torch lit your pretty little face on fire?”

Smirking, she shook her head. “I was ten and messing around in Dad's workshop. Johnny was babysitting because he was in town, and everyone else was out doing their own thing. Crossed a couple wires I shouldn't have and blew what I was working on up.”

He blinked again.

Felicity continued, “It's only thanks to Johnny that I survived. He absorbed all the fire into himself, stopped the bleeding, and got me fixed up. Being a Stark means you tend to have access to top-notch medical facilities, sometimes right in your own home. We got the workshop fixed and cleaned, threw out my ruined clothes, and pretended the accident never happened. The entire event is our little secret.”

After a moment, he straightened up and went back to the window. “This isn't a dumb little kid messing around and almost getting her sitter in trouble, though.” he told her.

“I know that. He knows that. But you see, the thing about Johnny is that he tends to believe in people. While I get called mature for my age, he gets called immature. I think part of his immaturity is because he still has some childish belief that most, if not all people are intrinsically good.”

As she fell silent, shredding more papers, Daken looked from the window to her. “I get the feeling you planned on letting him in on your secret the whole time, didn't you, brat?” he challenged.

Felicity calmly dumped a handful of photographs into the shredder. The bin had to be getting full by this point.

“... Yes. Him and only him. Everyone else who's going to know is on the darker side of the industry.” the girl answered, turning the shredder off and removing it from the bin. ANX came over and wordlessly took the bin, earning a brief smile.

“Alright. So why let him in? Why him and not your old man?” Daken asked, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms.

“You heard our agreement, didn't you? You were sitting on the stairs the whole time.” Felicity replied as ANX pulled a blender out of a cabinet and began filling the thing with shredded paper. “I check in with Johnny twice a week, be that calling or texting, to let him know I'm okay and how work is progressing. He lets me go otherwise. The second he suspects anything at all is wrong, he tells my father and comes to find me. Now, if I were to tell Dad... he's understanding, and both he and Mom have been very unrestrictive with me. But there are some things that we would just never agree on.”

ANX switched the blender on. The shredded paper mixed with water, getting turned into a grayish pulp.

Daken pushed away from the window, jumped over the couches, and marched to stand over Felicity. “So you're building a protection group, huh?” he growled.

She stared flatly up at him. “Neither Dr. Connors or Johnny would mind much that you regenerate quickly, Daken. I imagine they'd both delight in it, really. Heroes they may be, but it's now in your best interest to never turn on me.”

Before she'd even finished speaking, he had a set of claws to her throat.

The second he did, the blender clicked off.

“I would recommend putting them away, Mr. Akihiro.” ANX said, voice calm and even.

Growling a little, he turned to glare at the android—

It stood only a few feet away instead of in the kitchenette, pointing a white gun at his head.

“... What happened to maintaining and preserving life, Ken-doll?” he growled.

“Threats to the life and wellbeing, physical or mental, of Felicity Edward Stark and her selected family will not be tolerated. Retract your claws and step away from my creator, Mr. Akihiro.” the thing replied, a sharp edge creeping into it's voice.

After a moment, he stepped away, putting his hands up. ANX didn't lower the gun, even when he was leaning against the couch.

“... Put it away, ANX.” Felicity sighed, shaking her head. “As you yourself have stated, Daken, there is very little I can do to force you to stay with me. If you wish to leave now, far be it from me to stop you.”

“... I ought to. I've been used before, brat. I'm willing to let you push me,” he growled back, “But only to a certain point.”

She tipped her head as the android opened it's thigh up to place the gun. “I know.”

“You can't threaten me,” he continued, baring his teeth at her, “So stop trying.”

Felicity just moved to the kitchenette, fake human close behind her. As she switched on the blender once more, she asked, “Should we cancel our trip, then?”

He stormed over, growling a little. ANX turned to create a bodily shield of metal and plastic between the two of them when he came close.

“We'll go,” he said, low and dark, as she turned the blender off, “But whether I ever do anything else for you?”

“Understood. ANX, if you'd finish pulping this for me?” Felicity nodded, stepping away from the robot and grabbing one of the duffle bags.

“Have a safe trip, Felicity.” the thing replied, taking over the blender.

Daken grabbed the other bag and yanked the first away from the girl. She didn't reply, just picked up her purse and left the apartment, spinning her keys on her finger.

**Author's Note:**

> Earth Pi and Felicity Edward Stark started as a world-building and character-building exercise. Both have grown and evolved since then, and I have decided to beginning nudging the resulting fanwork onto AO3.


End file.
